Who is Your Favorite Beatle?

Who is Your Favorite Beatle!?

John Lennon

Lennon is typically thought of as the frontman, although the Beatles never strictly had a frontman in the same sense that a lot of modern bands now do. They opted against post 50’s band name norm to have a name such as “Lennon and the Beatles”, for a more diplomatic ‘The Beatles’ but of them all Lennon probably craved the centre stage the most. If you count the ‘Quarrymen’ as the Beatles before they were the Beatles, then Lennon would be the founding member, as the others joined at a later date. Lennon was a trickster, prankster and rebel and questionably troubled by his disjointed childhood.

The majority of the Beatles songs were a collaboration of both Lennon and McCartney and they will forever be renowned as potentially the greatest lyrical partnership of the 20th century if not ever, though opposites in some respects, they really clicked when it came to writing.Lennon was the comedian and knew how to work a crowd, his one liners such as “Everybody in the cheap seat clap your hands, if your in the posh seats then just rattle your jewellery” made him a lot of peoples favorite Beatle but is he yours?

Lennon although not devoid of his fair share of female adoration and conquests, was forever insecure about his nose and need of glasses and didn’t even regard his musical voice or ability very highly, perhaps modesty, perhaps endearing insecurity.

Lennon was capable of a very nasty streak, as a kid he was a trouble maker and as a teenager he was rebellious. There were allegations that Lennon starting beating up former Beatle and close friend Stewart Sutcliffe backstage, rather unprovoked, an act which Stewarts sister later attributed to an eventual brain heamorage, which took his life. Lennon’s treatment of his first wife Cynthia also paints a picture of not a very nice person.

Lennon is commonly thought to have been the reason The Beatles eventually split, with his insistence on persistently including his wife ‘Yoko Ono’ on tracks. Though Yoko also gave an insight into his Jealous nature, as John would be scared to so much to leave her alone in the studio with the other Beatles, even so much to go for tinkle, for fear that she may go off with one of them, that he would make her come with him. This Jealous nature was self acknowledged in his solo project song ‘Jealous guy’.John not only played the guitar but also the harmonica and was self taught in both the instruments and learnt to play both on poor quality instruments that weren’t even fully in tune. This Is part of what makes him one of the greatest all rounders of all time, he would later add other instruments such as sitar and Piano to his belt.

Paul McCartney

McCartney was the second of the core 4 Beatles to join in on the act, he was a year or two younger than Lennon but equally proficient in the guitar, he seemed to have music in his blood and is probably the most multi talented of the Beatles, having sung the leads to many songs and wrote himself, he was also competent as lead guitarist and even played a few instances on drums, especially in the pre-Ringo days, in the belief that he could hold time and drum better than any drummer at their disposal at the time.

Paul though partaking in his fair share of Beatles shenanigans, was much more sensible than Lennon for instance, a little less rough round the edges and more mentally stable. Especially in the early days, Paul was the one the girls predominantly came to see and if rumour is to believed he used to his full advantage throughout his Beatle career, there is a legend that during the peak of their busiest, they had only 1 day off in a month and Paul always spent that judging a Beauty pagent and then would frequently leave with the winner, how much of that is truth, you decide but he did indeed have a weakness for ladies and one in particular would attempt to try bring down this pop icon and national treasure, this would be in the form of former wife ‘Heather Mills’, who made allegations of abuse and domestic violence, which were later thrown out of court and such is the love for the iconic Beatles figure, that the nation almost unanimously took side with the ex-Beatle. His first wife was Linda McCartney, who played minor roles within the band and helped organize new management, which is believe to have worsen fractures in the relationship between Paul and John. Linda then with Paul’s support launched a vegetarian food range, in true 60’s spirit.

Paul too dabbled in kids entertainment and produced the Frog song for the popular kids cartoon ‘Rupert the bear’ and also wrote the theme tune for a Bond number.McCartney struggled initially with life after the Beatles and his new band ‘The wings’ didn’t enjoy immediate success but this soon picked up and they released a few songs which still reverberate today. Paul shared half the rights to the lyrical partnership of Lennon and McCartney, their success at writing was sometimes attributed to one-up-mans-ship but whatever fueled it, both members can take pride in the fact that it is widely revered as possibly the greatest lyrical partnership in history.

George Harrison

George was brought into the group as an acquaintance of Paul McCartney and was younger than both Lennon and McCartney, at an age where even a years difference, made a great difference to balance of power. George continued to be dominated by Lennon and McCartney and as the 3rd of the core Beatles to join, wasn’t quite a founding member, therefore George was often in the shadows to an extent and left most of the song writing to the combination of Lennon and McCartney but people suspect he may have bore some level of resentment for this and harbored ambitions to play a more central role and write his own stuff.

It was George who led the journey into the Indian sound, taking an interest in the Sitar and other reasonable obscure instruments in the western musical world, so George can therefore be seen as quite experimental and pivotal in pushing The Beatles into a direction which would seem them innovate and break boundaries. George wrote the song ‘Something’, which is now widely regarded as one of the best songs to come from the Beatles and this from the man in the background. This is sure to have given George some self belief and reaffirm his suspicions that he too could do what Lennon and McCartney did and was more than just a one trick pony, just executing the commands of the front two. When the Beatles split up, George would go on to arguably be the most successful as a Solo artist, out of the Beatles, at least immediately so.

Ringo Star

Ringo was the missing piece to the puzzle, it was thought that The Beatles and the quarrymen before them, never quite had the cutting edge without a competent drummer, during their time before Ringo, they would opt to having sub par drummers, simply because they brought their own drum kit and failing that, they would settle for having no drummer at all, which was quite unheard of and perhaps not in the good sense. When Ringo came along, he finished the puzzle and the Beatles as we know it were formed. During the early years, Ringo was playing in other bands, at the same time as the Quarrymen were around Liverpool but didn’t directly know each other for a long time.

Ringo is now 2 of 4 Beatles still with us and remains a proud Liverpudlian, however he is not so keen on his association with the Beatles and is reported to be tired of people insistently mentioning it and requesting it. Ringo’s unusual voice has become a thing of cult legend and many a fan enjoying mimicking his lines from films such as The Yellow Submarine. Ringo took full advantage and became a voice over in the popular kids cartoon series ‘Thomas the tank engine’. Ringo spearheaded the campaign to make Liverpool the city of culture recently and appears to be involved within the art scene and remains a very flamboyant figure.

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Comments 5 comments

Ringo is by far my favorite. I always loved Octopus's Garden and he sealed the deal with his work on the Thomas series and Shining Time Station.

samislam 4 years ago from Vancouver, WA

As a guitarist myself, I'm inclined to pick Harrison as my favorite Beatle. It doesn't hurt that he wrote "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which is my personal favorite song from these guys. Oh yeah, and as a Bengali, that whole "Concert for Bangladesh" dealio has been fully engraved into my social being.

But McCarteny has such a killer voice--he can go from gentle balladry all the way to powerhouse screaming. So maybe it's tied. And Lennon had a knack for awesome songwriting. And Ringo is probably the most underrated drummer of all time.

Picking a favorite is difficult!

CCahill 4 years ago from England Author

Ha yeah, at first it sounded like you were tipping towards George but then McCartney but then lennon and then ringo and oh your back round to the beginning again ;)

Like picking a favorite child!

Music-and-Art-45 4 years ago from USA, Illinois

John Lennon has always been my favorite member of The Beatles, I do like George a lot though, too. The Lennon and Harrison songs were so far ahead of their time, it's a shame that they both have passed on. They left us some great music

CCahill 4 years ago from England Author

@ Music and Art

Cheers for voting, indeed but i guess they remain immortalized still, so they can have few regrets